Maguire calls for an attitude adjustment after heavy loss

Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire questioned his side's attitude after they conceded eight tries in a 42-24 loss to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon at Leichhardt Oval.

Maguire's men rallied to trail by just two points with a quarter of the game remaining but were blown away by the Knights in the final 20 minutes.

The Wests Tigers' right edge in particular came under fire with seven tries, including two off kicks, coming through their defensive channel.

"It was extremely disappointing... that's not what we're about and will definitely have to fix that moving forward," Maguire said.

"I thought the game was there at half-time and it was about who wanted it more.

"That comes back to attitude towards how you want to play and sink your shoulder into a tackle.

"I thought our second half was really disappointing."

Maguire conceded the right edge of Benji Marshall and new recruits Joey and Luciano Leilua needed work and wasn't about to make excuses just because it was only their second game together.

"The boys have just got to find their shoulders," Maguire said.

"That comes back to attitude and understanding what your role is. You can talk about our right edge or middles, teams will pick apart individuals if you're not doing those sorts of things.

"We didn't want to turn up and put our shoulders into tackles and teams feel that and they'll find you.

"They turned up last week with a different attitude.

"It's about turning up week in and week out, that's what makes our competition."

Wests Tigers will host Canterbury in round three at Campbelltown Stadium with a seven-day turnaround at their disposal.

Bench forward Thomas Mikaele will be sent for scans on a knee injury but Maguire expected co-captain Moses Mbye and recent signing Harry Grant to be available for selection.

"We've still got work to do, without a doubt," Maguire said.

"I want to look at my squad and know who wants to own that performance because that's not acceptable to be a competitive team moving forward.

"I'm looking forward to watching my players take away any noise from the outside and go through that game because if we want to be a strong team within this competition we need to be strong with each other on how that performance was.

"We're grown men and have to own up."